L.P.H. Resource Center On-Line Courses

for Catholic Homeschoolers

Since the Spring of 1998, the L.P.H. Resource Center has offered high-quality, low-cost classes for Catholic homeschoolers on the World Wide Web.

The idea behind it was to duplicate, as much as possible, what used to be done in person at the L.P.H. Resource Center when it was in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, over the internet.
(The LPH Resource Center was set up in Pottstown in 1992 for helping Catholic homeschooling parents with teaching their children.)
The children there were mostly 4th-8th graders, so that is the age range that all of the courses here are intended for, but there are always more than a few high-school homeschoolers who also take classes here (last year, almost 20% of the students were high-schoolers). There are even adults who sometimes sign up for classes here.

The classes are intended for Catholic homeschoolers, but are open to everyone, whether homeschooled or not.

The classes that run over the summer started the week of January 5, 2015.

You can read a description of any of the courses to find out more about them. Please read it before signing up for the classes!

Creative Writing is only available for the classes that start in September. It should be available again next September.

Enrollment in the classes (when enrollment starts again) is done by sending a check or money order for the correct fee to the Address below, or using a PayPal account or a Credit Card through PayPal, and going to the sign-up sign-up form and filling in your information.
The sign-up page is available when enrollment starts.

After you have paid and filled out the signup page, you will see a web page with the URL web addresses for the courses you have selected, with some instructions. These URL's will get you the lessons each week once they start.

Conferences

Dates

The classes for the 2014-2015 school year begin the week of September 8, 2014.

The classes for the 2015 Winter-Summer Session begin the week of January 5, 2015.

The lessons are weekly, except around major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter).
A lot of people are busy or go away during those times, so there are breaks in the weekly lessons at those times.

Each lesson is on-line for a week, starting every Monday.
They may be done at any time on any day within that period, except for Creative Writing. The Creative Writing class will not be available on Sundays.
(But if possible, please do not do the lessons on Sunday. That is my day off, so if you have a problem or question about it, I may not get back to you and help with it until after the lesson has ended for the week.)

The courses have 31 or 32 lessons (except for the 10-week courses).

A URL (web address) for a special web page will be given at the beginning of the year to each family that has enrolled, for each course. This should be bookmarked and/or written down and kept in a safe place. Each week (except during vacations) that URL will bring up the current week's lesson!

The address of that web page must not be given out shared with anyone else, so that the safety and security of the web site (especially the discussion boards) can be maintained.

Calendar

Ages

All the classes are intended for children from 4th - 8th grade level.

This is only a recommendation!

Children younger than this may give the classes here a try.

Older students are also welcome to take the classes. Many High-School-age students have taken classes here. Almost 20% of the students here last year were high school homeschoolers.
Even adults are welcome to take any of these classes, but the classes are intended and designed for children.

How it works

Each week (beginning on Monday morning) the URL you receive at the beginning of the year will bring up a new lesson. That lesson will come up for the rest of the week; it can be done at any time during the week.

Each lesson starts with a web page containing the lesson.

For most of the courses, this is followed by a series of "Discussion Topics".
These are questions usually with no specific answer, which are intended to help facilitate discussions within the family on the material which has just been learned in the lesson.

Then there is a link to a quiz, which is a web form.

A grade point average for the quizzes will be available in September for whoever would like one.

At the end of the year, a Certificate of Completion will be available (in pdf - Adobe Acrobat - format) for students who complete at least 75% of the quizzes with an average of at least 70 on the quizzes for the year (for the Creative Writing class, no more than one lesson can be missed for a certificate).

During the course of the year, important announcements regarding the classes and activities may be sent to all the families taking classes here.
They are in e-mail messages with the Subject: LPH Announcements... These should always be read right away.

Demonstrations

This shows how some of the things in the courses work.

QUIZ. This shows how the quizzes work! This is the quiz for Lesson 10 of the Bible History course (on Samuel and King Saul). After you select your answers, you can click Send the Quiz and it will mark it and show the results, with the score in square brackets.

Flexibility

Every homeschooling family has its own ways of doing things.

Because of that, the classes here are kept as flexible as they can possibly be.

They may be done at any time during the week they are available (except for Creative Writing, which will not be available on Sundays).

Families may choose to use the quizzes included in the lessons or not. (They must be done if a certificate at the end of the year is desired.)

The lessons may be used as the complete content of the course,
or they may be used as supplements for the main lessons,
or may be used simply as a guide.

Cost

The fee for each of these courses for this year is $38 per half-year (half the course).
For the full year, $76 for each course.

The second half of the payment for the classes starting in September is due around the middle of January.

The second half of the payment for the classes starting in January is due the middle of May.

The total cost for each of the four 10-week courses is $38 per course.

(I prefer being paid by check, but payments by credit card through Paypal or from a Paypal accout are also welcome!)

After you have calculated the total cost for the classes you want, then fill in the amount here: $.00

The full amount for the year ($76: double the cost for half the year) may be paid all at once at the beginning of the year, so there's no danger of not getting the fee for the second half sent on time. But it's not a good idea unless you are sure you will be using all the classes for the entire year, since there are no refunds.

Note: This is the cost per family for the classes except Creative Writing.
Any number of children in the same family may take courses for the same price. except for Creative Writing, where the cost is per student, not per familyAt the beginning of the year I need to have the names of everyone in the family who will be taking the classes, as well as their ages or grade levels (if the student is an adult, just put down "adult" instead of the actual age).

For families outside the U.S.: Payment must be in U.S. dollars, by PayPal, or by Postal money order (no checks outside the U.S.).

After your payment is received you will receive an e-mail acknowledging enrollment. If you do not receive an e-mail soon after payment, please write to

The Latin class here can be taken for free by priests, seminarians, or religious, who would like a basic introduction to Latin. But first, write to me for details about that.

Supplies

No additional materials ever need to be purchased from the L.P.H. Resource Center for any of these courses! The fee listed above is the total amount to be paid to the LPH Resource Center.

A separate notebook should be used for each of the language courses. At least one notebook is required when doing any of the language classes.
For the music class, a notebook with musical staff lines drawn in is strongly recommended.

A Bible is needed for the Bible History course (and sometimes for other courses as well) and access to good, contemporary maps for the Geography and History courses is expected.

For the Science Projects and Art Projects, the materials will be listed one week in advance.

Safety

Some parents are justifiably concerned about how safe the internet is for children.
It isn't hard, accidentally or deliberately, to run into bad things on the internet.

In order to keep these lessons perfectly safe, there is never any link to any outside location on any web page in any lesson.

(Sometimes students put links on the message boards, often to their own blogs.)

Everything in the lesson is on-site, so everything is kept under complete control.

I started working with homeschoolers around 1979-1980, and it's mainly all the years of experience I've had with homeschoolers in many different families which has made these on-line courses possible.
You can find out more about me by going to my personal web page at http://RickMK.com

I also do private tutoring for children locally, mainly in math and reading.

Address

If you pay by check, it must be made payable to Richard KephartorKepharts LPH Resource Center (Money orders must be made payable to Richard Kephart). Send it to this address:

RICHARD KEPHART
L.P.H. RESOURCE CENTER
5 HIGH ST.
MALVERN, PA 19355

(Please write your e-mail address on the check)

You may download a FORM that you can print out and send with your check if you like. It is in pdf format.

If you send a check or money order, please don't make it out to "LPH". Make it out to "Richard Kephart" or to "Kepharts LPH Resource Center".

I prefer being paid by check but it's fine to pay through PayPal, either with a Paypal account or using a credit card.

Unless you're paying for the second half of the year, after sending your check or paying through PayPal you must go to the sign-upsign-up page and fill it out to receive the web addresses to use to get the classes when they start.

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Comments

Here are a few comments from some of the parents who have enrolled their children in the courses here this past year:

We love that we can all take the same class for one fee. This makes this a plausible option for our homeschool program. We enjoy being able to discuss what we've learned and the kids enjoy the friendly (?) competition for a good quiz grade – nice motivation for really learning the material.

We feel very comfortable letting our children take these classes because of all the safety precautions Mr. Rick has. The closed chat rooms and teacher monitoring have given our children a safe way to explore the internet and develop some basic computer skills.
The added interaction between students for Valentine's Day and secret Santas as well as the weekly questions are a nice serendipity.

— R. Federline in Murrysville, PA

The talk rooms for the kids are a great idea, Evan really likes those.

— Lachance family in Augusta, ME

Rick has put together a thoughtful and creative course listing. He does a wonderful job of encouraging interaction among the students through the chat rooms and holiday celebrations.

— M. Casal in Round Rock, TX

We loved the LPH classes we took this year and plan to take more next year. We especially liked the framework that LPH provides: the classes we took could be a complete course as well as an introduction to topics that we could explore more in-depth if we wanted. We did both and we were blessed with a wonderful school year! We thank God for LPH and pray that you continue this wonderful Catholic learning opportunity.

— Joan Reynolds in Dillingham, Alaska

All the classes we have taken have been very age and content appropriate. We, the parents have gained knowledge from the courses as we sit down and go over things with the children.

— Donna Bubb in Williamsport, PA

I wanted to thank you for the great classes. This past week [April 2005] one of our 6th graders, John, participated in the Pennsylvania state geography bee at Shippensburg University. There was one question he got that dealt with Africa (the geography course he is taking through LPHRC)..and he got it right!! [There were many other questions about Africa, but, just not his to answer.]
It was exciting enough just to be at the state competition...the top 103 in the state were there!

— Raissa in Murrysville, Pennsylvania

As a homeschooling Mom with eight children, I highly recommend Our Lady of Perpetual Help Resource Center. It is great to have online courses for my middle school children so I can spend more time with the younger children. The courses are interesting, stimulating, very Catholic, and the friends my children made with other Catholic students online was a lot of fun for them. I just wish I would have found this resource sooner!!!

— Teresa in Cambridge, Idaho

I love the LPH classes particularly the History courses because they are so very Catholic in perspective.

— Carol in Silver Spring, Maryland

I love your American History class because it keeps us on track. I use it as a framework and add historical fiction and non-fiction and activity books for those areas we want to study in detail. This way I know the kids aren't missing anything pertinent. It is also refreshing to obtain a Catholic perspective after what would be considered a nationalism perspective for years.

— Sue in Grove City, Ohio

What a pleasure to have my son enrolled in your program! I thought the weekly lessons would be just a "supplement" but we have found the lessons are thoughtful and present an excellent detailed view of the topics covered. History is John's current favorite, but the Church Latin complemented his knowledge of the Latin as an altar server for Tridentine Mass. The graphics are great and what a great idea to have sound "bites" for the pronunciation and cultural aspects of the lessons... even songs!

— Ann in Purdys, New York

The courses that we have taken - American History and Greek have been excellent. I like the fact that they are all prepared for me and I don't have to do any preparation, esp. helpful for a busy mom. The American History course could be taken just as it is or added to with library books to supplement and enhance the topics that one finds more interesting by doing reports, which my daughter did. My daughter really liked the bonus questions and enjoyed doing the "extra" research that was involved. The course had a nice combination of historical facts and cultural information.
I took the Greek course for my own enjoyment. I feel I have gotten the basics and I am astonished that I have been able to translate passages from the Bible from Greek to English.
In the past we have also taken the Bible History and World History, they were also excellent. They were all written presenting the Catholic contribution to history.
Thanks so much for your help for Catholic home-schooling families.

— Claire in Norristown, Pennsylvania

If you have any questions about the courses, you can send e-mail to the teacher at
.

I don't have an on-line English grammar course at this time, but I do have an educational grammar card game I developed while tutoring a 10-year-old boy in grammar last spring, making a game out of learning the parts of speech.